- Monsanto Company has acquired Agroeste Sementes, a leading Brazilian corn seed company, for slightly more than $100 million. Agroeste focuses on hybrid corn seed production and serves farmers throughout Brazil, the world’s third largest corn production area. Brazilian farmers planted approximately 30 million acres of corn in the 2006-07 growing season. Today, Monsanto estimates that the Brazilian hybrid corn seed market is 23 million acres.Agroeste’s corn seed products are currently used on approximately 10 percent of Brazil corn acres. Monsanto’s corn seed products, sold locally through the DEKALB and Agroceres seed brands, are currently used on approximately 30 percent of corn acres in Brazil.
- FMC introduces Authority® MTZ herbicide, a preplant treatment for soybeans that controls problem weeds, resulting in a clean start for earlier planting next spring. FMC representatives also point to what they call the Flexi-Crop Advantage that Authority MTZ provides. The Flexi-Crop Advantage means that the recropping interval is only four months for corn and small grains (where Authority MTZ has been applied up to 14 oz/A).Authority MTZ controls a variety of broadleaves that have exhibited resistance to glyphosate and/or ALS herbicides. When used as part of a fall burndown program, it provides unmatched residual control of a number of small seeded broadleaves and winter annual weeds including henbit, chickweed, pigweed, marestail, lambsquarters and waterhemp. For maximum control of emerged weeds, apply Authority MTZ as a tank mix with other herbicides such as Rage™ D-Tech, a new burndown herbicide from FMC.
- American Angus Association members will meet during the 2007 North American International Livestock Exposition, Nov. 10-13 in Louisville, Ky. A full slate of educational and social activities is planned for attendees to the American Angus Association’s 124th Annual Convention of Delegates and the 2007 Super Point Roll of Victory Angus Show. Several new activities and a change of venue at the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center for the meetings are planned this year.
- Novus International, a leading innovator of animal health and nutrition programs, announces the addition of Jeremy Lutgen as in-house Marketing and Public Relations Specialist. Jeremy brings over seven years of marketing, public relations, media planning and research experience to Novus. Most recently Jeremy was with Osborn and Barr Communications where he was responsible for the planning and purchasing of integrated marketing campaigns for national and international accounts. Jeremy possesses a B.S. degree from Drury University located in Springfield, Mo., in Communications with emphasis in Advertising and Public Relations.
- A tiny pest called the “panicle rice mite” has been found in the southern U.S. rice growing regions, says a news report sent to USA Rice Daily for publication from the Louisiana State University AgCenter’s Rice Research Station in Crowley, La. The microscopic panicle mite, Steneotarsonemus spinki, has been a major problem in rice fields in Central and South America, the Caribbean and Asia, the report says. Suspect mites must be sent to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for a positive identification. Visit the LSU AgCenter for more information.
